I rarely get feisty, but I did on Friday.
At noon, a fax (yes, a fax) from the Mississippi Department of Health printed out at the Commonwealth office. It landed on my desk. A boil-water alert had been declared for the East Leflore Water and Sewer District.
In bold letters near the top it read: “Water sampling showed the presence of E.coli. and Total Coliform bacteria.” Also in bold “serious health concern,” and then it said it posed a “special health risk” to children and anyone with a weak immune system. The things people had to do to stay safe, according to the fax, were eye-opening — even wash dishes in boiled water.
My first instinct was to check my phone. Surely an emergency text has been pushed out to everyone in the area near the cell tower. The Commonwealth’s offices are close by. Nothing.
I get severe weather alerts, missing children alerts, and a host of other safety alerts on my cellphone depending on where I have lived. Once an active shooter alert miles away.
But no contaminated-bacteria-stop-drinking-the-water-now alert!
I looked at my watch. I thought to myself, “Surely, the Department of Health is not just sending this to the press for us to put out. People need to stop drinking that water NOW!”
Yes. The Department of Health only was informing you via TV, radio and newspaper.
I started making calls to Jackson and in Greenwood. The Department of Health assured me just after noon that the contamination was isolated to Greenwood-Leflore Airport.
That was a bit of a sigh of relief, but still serious.
I began to write. Then at 3:20 p.m. another fax printed. It wasn’t just the airport. It was all 2,100 customers of East Leflore who were potentially at risk.
It went from being a “possible contamination” to a call later that it was a confirmed contamination.
“Who has lost the plot on this?” I thought. I wanted to know the earliest time when contamination had begun so as to get you — the reader in East Leflore, your family, your neighbors — the information you needed in case you started experiencing symptoms.
It was a feeling of such helplessness to know you were drinking the water, and there was nothing I could do except call, write and try to get the facts. Yes, there have been boil-water alerts before. But each time they should be treated as an emergency communication.
The only person I could get at the Department of Health was in communications. And that individual did not have any answers because everyone had apparently gone home when I asked to be transferred.
I had strong controlled words with that person about some straight answers and some uncomfortable questions.
I am reminded I am only supposed to report the news, not advocate and be feisty.
Here’s the thing. The Department of Health will send you a text message if you sign up on its website.
But you should not have to sign up. The Department of Health should proactively protect your health. As noted on www.ready.gov/alerts, the technology is already in place for the Department of Health to send out contaminated water alerts to your cellphone. Immediately. No sign-up. It just chooses not to use this capability.
Callers to the Commonwealth Monday clearly were a bit shell-shocked that they had been drinking possibly contaminated water for as long as 24 hours and didn’t know. They asked me what can be done?
Call your legislator and have our state government make it mandatory for urgent public health messages to be pushed out via text. Like a thunderstorm or missing child.
There is no plausible reason in the 21st century why you should have to wait on the news media to get this information to you.
